(Continued. Part 2) A man and his canine partners.
……It was great no matter what job I was doing. Who or what I was keeping safe, it was always about working with my canine friends and 
training them to protect me. When your best friend is also your protector and your rock you develop quite a bond, and this book is my tribute to them, my homage if you will, to Hooch and the friends that led me to him. I found that writing with emotion is not the best way to structure a book but a great way to get it all down. It was a fulfilling process for me and my finished book was then circulated to friends and family. The feedback was the structure wasn’t great. So I then took up the challenge to edit and rewrite, structuring my emotion so readers could follow the story properly.
Once finished it took me eight months to send to the publisher. It was probably the hardest thing I had to do was to actually decide to send it, I started this journey with one goal. I wanted one copy of a book I had written on my bookshelf. That was all. The decision to publish was a hard one as it was never about money or success and in my head it was never really to be public. In a book like this you bare your soul to explain the feelings you have and the circumstances you are in. It was my family that convinced me, success or not it is an achievement that I am proud of. I really hope you enjoy it.
‘Poleybear’ (as seen in photo on right) Polar was a stray all of his life. As you can see from his coat he was a big fluffy German Shepard.
He inherited the name Polar, but my children started calling him Poleybear because he was like a teddy bear and lovely to cuddle for those that he would allow to cuddle him. I write a lot about him in the book because he was my biggest regret. He died as we were beginning to make headway with him and his issues. He was the tender age of three when he had to go. He had not developed well due to his lack of shelter and nutrition growing up and it was just too much for him.
Excerpt: “I balanced myself and as the baiter walked closer he crossed the boundary. Hooch reacted. His hackles came up, he started pulling harder, begging to be set free. His growling started, deep in his throat at first, a guttural warning. His mouth opened slightly just enough to let the sound out. “Watch him” I whispered in a sharp tone and the sound erupted from Hooch’s mouth. A deep powerful bark, he raised his lips to show his gleaming white K9’s to prove he was serious. Spittle came from his mouth and he started bouncing on his front feet which exaggerated his look of impatience. 
Every couple of barks he would throw me a look imploring me to let him go so he could do his job. The baiter gave me the signal by raising his arm, I waited for Hooch to shimmy back and knew he was on the cusp of surging forward. I unclipped his lead so he could follow through with his momentum. He surged forward. It was times like this I couldn’t help the smile on my face. Three or four years ago I couldn’t have done this and neither could Hooch.”
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To Purchase:
Paperback book – UK
Paperback book – USA
E-books: https://www.amazon.co.uk/
Did you miss part I of this wonderful post? Click here
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? Johan Thompson (South African author) joined us in April. June: Mehreen Ahmed. July: Janet Macleod Trotter, author of Tea Planter’s Daughter and in August we say ‘hello’ to Cheryl Hollon.
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